Writing without BS; Future is Emotional; 4 Fave Rules; Congrats to Winners

"... insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

The Iron Imperative - Treat the reader's time as more valuable than your own.
	Josh Bernoff, author of Writing without BS

Writing without BS -- Start writing to stand out. That's an additional imperative in Josh Bernoff's well-written book titled Writing without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean. Emails, social media, proposals, press releases, books, etc. - much of our day is driven by writing or reading what others have written. It's worth getting good at - and some of the basics are simple if followed. Order the book (SPro and book club members will receive next week) and jump right to Chapt 21 on writing emails - have everyone on your team discuss and agree to follow his rules like just ONE topic per email with the right action/request in the Subject line - my biggest rule inside Gazelles.

Four Favorite Writing Rules -- For 10 great writing rules, check out Bernoff's Amazon page. Of the ten, here are my four of favorite:

3. Front-load your writing . Make your titles and subject lines descriptive. Tell the story in the first two sentences. You haven't got long to capture people's attention. 4. Purge passive voice . Passive sentences frustrate people. Don't tell us "the new system is estimated to cost $150,000." Tell us who's responsible: "The IT department estimates that the new system will cost $150,000. " 5. Replace jargon . Big words are more likely to confuse readers than impress them. Don't tell us that you've "become part of the vendor ecosystem" when you really mean "our product is now compatible with other companies' software." 6. Eliminate weasel words . Weasel words are vague, meaningless intensifiers. When you tell us you're "incredibly excited about the new hire's massive performance improvement and deep knowledge of the subject," we sense that you're bullshitting us. Replace the intensifiers and qualifiers with facts and statistics.

Josh is keynoting our upcoming ScaleUp Summit Oct 17 - 18, St. Louis. Join over 1000 leaders of ScaleUps coming together to outlearn their competition.

How Do You Want to Make Them Feel? -- Adam Grant (guru, author, and prof) was preparing for the biggest speech of his career. His coach asked him "what do you want the audience to feel?" Adam's August newsletter (I read them religiously) details his reaction to the question and ultimately what he decided - it's worth taking 1 minute to read. As you write and speak, keep this powerful question in mind - remembering that must always connect with people (and customers) via the heart and then help them justify in their brain whatever decision/idea/change your presenting.

The Future is Emotional -- and if you read further down in Grant's newsletter you'll see he points to an important article about the future of work. This Aeon article highlights the importance of workers, from police officers to doctors, needing social and emotional skills as much as technical skill. And maybe not a surprise, notes the author:

It is becoming clear to researchers that working-class people tend to have sharper emotional skills than their wealthier, more educated counterparts.

The article also notes that you can do lots of emotional skills training (like they are doing for doctors) but it's the environment that also has a huge impact on whether people can deliver on these emotional skills. That's why your company culture is so important, something I'll be highlighting next week with some "tattoo" examples!! Stay tuned and enjoy this article.

Three-Month Vacation - How Would that Feel? -- as I come to the end of another summer I lament that I was busier than I wanted to be. This Fortune article highlights how J.P Morgan, one of the most successful entrepreneurs, was disciplined in taking 3 month vacations. Notes the article:

...he firmly believed that he "could do a year's work in nine months-but not in twelve months." Without three months of rest, in other words, he wouldn't be able to do what he did during the rest of the year.

I truly believe him. As I look to 2018, I hope to do better! Can I get five days of work accomplished in four? That's 52 days back. Then a real month off?

Hidden Champions Meet Sept 14 Frankfurt -- Hermann Simon, my mentor, pricing guru, and keeper of the global "hidden champions" database (mid-market firms that dominate their unique niches globally), is hosting his annual summit at the Frankfurt airport Sept 14 from 12:30pm - 6:30pm. Hear from those CEOs who have built "hidden champion" companies along with a keynote from Hermann. Investment is €500 - for more info and to register.

Congratulations -- to the winners from last week's ScaleUp Summit drawing who win a hotel upgrade to a Suite!

Frank Loureiro All-tech Inc Brett Bean FE Moran Security Solutions Tony Schmid SpringHill

Register for the Summit by tomorrow, Friday, August 25th and be eligible to win a User Conference pass! All Summit registrants are eligible.

ScaleUp Summit October 17-19th | St. Louis, MO Click here to register

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities - alongside how they Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

Better Book Club -- What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.